Chapter 11

"nice place," sierra noted as they walked into Poor Yorick's Pub together.

"hey, cardigan" danny blake greeted them from behind the bar. "looks like you're overachieving these days," he noted, winking at sierra. "you aren't the type he usually goes for."

"oh?" sierra was intrigued. "what type does he usually go for?"

"tight jeans and loose morals," blake smirked.

sierra laughed. cardigan brooded. "yeah, yeah, yeah. sierra charles, danny blake. sierra is just a client, blake." she arches an eyebrow at this. "okay, a business associate. what's on the menu today?"

"tamale pie."

"sounds good, and a couple of bass ales." they carried their mugs to a table and, after a sip, cardigan said, "okay, charles. you said there was unfinished business. what is it?"

she shrugged. "it's this story, cardigan. it's lame. it's disjointed. it's boring. it's stupid. it's going nowhere." she takes another sip. "i don't think we can go on like this."

he nodded. "i agree. this guy plainly doesn't know what he's doing. in fact, that's the point. he starts to make this shit up at the moment he clicks on 'New Post.' i feel like we're being played and i don't like it." he glanced at her across the table. "any ideas?"

"well, i was thinking that i'd just turn into a vampire all of the sudden and start biting you and others on the neck." she grinned. "i think that would be fun."

"not bad, charles, not bad." he leaned back as blake brought their tamale pie to the table. "but, do vampires eat real food?"

she closed her eyes and breathed in the rich aromas. "i don't think so, so scratch that. i'm not missing out on this." she picked up a fork and looked up at blake. "what do you think, danny?"

"well, i agree that something's gotta change, but i'm a tavern keeper, not a storyteller." he hollered over at his other customer, sitting at a table knitting while staring at a laptop, "hey, marian! what do you think?"

the woman looked up and pointed at herself with a questioning look on her face and, at blake's nod, walked over to the table. "i have given this matter much thought!"

cardigan swallowed and looked up. "i'm gavin cardigan, she's sierra charles. and this tamale pie is terrific."

"mmmhmmm," sierra concurred.

"my name is marian elfman, and i know who you are," she nodded toward her laptop. "i've been reading this drivel. now, i think you guys should just hang out here in the pub and just talk about whatever is on your mind. that way, there's no story to follow. i don't mind trying to figure out a good mystery plot, but...this is far from being good, you know?"

blake nodded. "i like that idea. plus, it'd be good for business."

cardigan drained his beer. "true, but for something like that to be interesting, we should all be pretty different from one another. charles and i are both private investigators."

sierra volunteered to change. "i don't care for this private investigator thing much anyway."

"what would you do, instead?"

"i can be a vampire!"

cardigan scowled. "come on, charles. we've been over that. you can't eat real food, you can't come here in the daytime, and none of us wants to be bitten."

"besides," marian interjected, "people come here for food, and all that blood will gross them out."
"and that would be bad for business," blake added.

"okay, fine. i'll be independently wealthy."

"no!" they all said in unison.

"okay, fine. i'll be a D-list celebrity who appears on lame reality TV shows."

"not bad, charles," cardigan grinned. "i could get a lot of mileage out of that." he looks over at marian. "what do you do, marian?"

"i write a syndicated advice column called 'don't be so melodramatic!'"

they all laughed. "that's perfect! we can make fun of all kinds of people," sierra noted. "that will take some of the pressure off of me."

cardigan said, "sounds like a plan." he put his hand out toward marian for a high-five. when she put her hand out toward his, he pulled it back to stroke his hair, "psych!"

marian scrunched up her face at him, stomping her foot. "that wasn't nice!"

blake grinned. "this is more like it!"